


Will of the Sea

by MelissaKeith



Category: One Piece
Genre: Adventure, Gen, Helpfully unhelpful OC, Made-up Devil Fruits
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-01
Updated: 2017-07-07
Packaged: 2018-11-22 01:51:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11370072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelissaKeith/pseuds/MelissaKeith
Summary: Bounty-hunting is an easy enough living for a young girl with funny powers - until she starts to have chance encounters with the world's stupidest pirate crew, anyway, and is dragged into their silly adventures. Unfortunately for her, their ridiculous group suits her pretty well.With her aunt's words still ringing in her ears, Izora can't help but fight to change the cruelty of the world alongside them.(Can skip her backstory in the first chapter if you'd like. I'll probably be moving it soon)





	1. Izora's Past: Auntie Mayuri and the Sharp-Sharp Fruit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ten year-old Izora and her ex-Marine aunt, Mayuri, live in the East Blue. Because of her inability to listen to orders, Izora ends up eating the Sharp-Sharp Fruit and leaving their island on bad terms.

The day had started out pretty normally for the two residents of Santan Island. The island's owner, Mayuri, had spent the first hours after dawn chasing her thieving niece around, and then they'd done chores. Then, of course, more training. That was about when the day become a little strange, although neither of them could have known all that would change today.

"There's a guy coming by later that I want you to stay away from," Mayuri said, as she removed her niece's blindfold.

"What?" Izora blinked repeatedly. They had been training on a cliff this time, and the sun-reflecting sea was blinding for her after so long with her eyes covered.

Eight-year old Izora and her auntie lived on a tiny island in the East Blue: they had a little farm, and used the produce from it to trade for goods. Despite that, visitors were a really rare sight. "Is it a Marine?" she guessed.

Mayuri whapped her with the training stick, but didn't refute it. She had been a Marine herself, until she lost an eye and retired several years ago: that's why several different Marines had come to her for advice before.

Sometimes auntie Mayuri even gave them the same sort of nonsense training Izora was getting - being attacked blindfolded to learn to sense one's enemy's movements in other ways. Except, the visitors _thanked_ her for it.

"Will he be staying a while?" Was Izora's next question.

"If he stays more than an hour, I'll kill him." Mayuri replied. When Izora laughed, she added, "this isn't a joke. I don't want this guy anywhere near you, alright? He's going to arrive on the South shore, so I want you to stay in the caves along the East. If you don't hide the second we see his ship, you won't eat for a week."

... Well, Izora had never been good at listening. That's how she found herself peeking over a cliff on the southern coast, three hours later. She knew better than to get any closer, at least, but from here she could spy on the guy who her auntie was acting weird about.

He didn't look that special. He wore a Marine's coat, but he didn't have the symbol anywhere on his ship; and his weird purple hair was in a bun atop his head.

"What's scary about this guy?" Izora mumbled. Unbelievably, both the purple bun guy and her auntie whipped their heads in her direction.

"Eep!" Izora squeaked, crawling back until she could stand outside their sightline. There's no way that they should have been able to hear her from that distance, but she knew for sure what she had to do now.

There were plenty of ripe fruits in the forest this time of year, and Izora began stuffing her face with them. This wasn't the first time Mayuri had threatened her with starvation over something, and she knew her auntie meant it. She hardly paused eating when she heard a scream from the beach; it was pitched too low to be Mayuri, and it's not like Izora cared about the other guy.

Another sound, this time a nearby 'pop!', did cause her to turn around. This allowed her to realize that she'd somehow missed the strangest fruit she'd ever seen. It looked big, juicy, and interesting, with its yellow spikes, and she swallowed her current mouthful before picking it up.

" _Iiiiiiiiiiiizoraaaaa..._ " she heard in the distance, causing her to quickly shove it in her mouth and chomp down.

Unlike the other fruits, it was clear that this one wasn't ripe _at all_. It was absolutely disgusting, and she would have spat it right back out if she hadn't heard her auntie's footsteps. As it was, she choked it down and tried to look casual.

"Oiiiii... what are you doiiiing." Mayuri was still using her dangerous low voice, and Izora gulped again.

"Auntie, hello! Isn't the weather lovely~?" she tried, and then the world went black.

When next Izora woke, she was tied upside down to a tree. It only took a couple of days for her to use her new Devil Fruit power unintentionally, turning her hand into a blade and slicing through the ropes. It took another five minutes for Mayuri to find out.

"You..? How could you have eaten one! _I knocked you out right after I killed him!_ Damn it all!!!"

Izora attempted to say something, her hand turning back to flesh, but Mayuri had kicked a window out at the same time and covered the sound.

"Did it transform in her fuckin' mouth?" Auntie demanded of the ceiling.

This was the angriest Izora had seen her aunt in all their time living together. Mayuri was a scary person, and Izora had known that, said so a million times before - but it was only now that she really felt afraid. Mayuri wasn't just angry, either - tears were pouring out of her eye, and she was breaking stuff left and right with wild fists. Her usual calm and playful mannerisms couldn't be found at all.

It took a while for Mayuri to wind down enough to let Izora say anything, and only after piling questions on her. "Do you know what you've done? Do you know what this means? You ate a devil fruit, Izora! How did you even find it?"

"A devil fruit?" Izora repeated, dumbstruck. Her mind flashed to that gross fruit she'd eaten last.

"The Sharp-Sharp Fruit! Damn it, if I had just waited to kill that idiot -- and if you had just _listened to me_  -- this wouldn't be happening!"

Izora flinched, and stammered out, "H-hey though, w- what's so bad about it? I mean, you told me about lots of Marines who've eaten devil fruits and its helped -"

"But you're not a Marine!" Mayuri shouted, before dropping to her knees. "That's what's so _bad_ about it, Izora! Now that you're a devil fruit user, you can never be a normal person... the World Government won't allow it. If you don't become a Marine, even if you don't do anything wrong - being a devil fruit user makes you enough of a threat. Especially if it's clearly the fruit of a recently-missing Captain! _Fuck!_ "

"W-what are you saying? Is it illegal to eat one?" and when Mayuri hadn't answered within a minute, "well, so... I'll become a Marine then!"

"Absolutely not!"

"Why not?" Izora asked, frustrated. "Then what am I supposed to do?!"

"Izora - Izora, Izora, Izora!" Mayuri had begun to shake her head, and couldn't seem to stop. "There's a reason I quit the Marines, you know!"

"Your eye-?"

"No, that was a lie! I lost my right eye in my first month as a Marine, and it never slowed me down. I quit because I knew I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I stayed! I believed for so long in what I was doing - believed in justice and in my commanding officers, even when I couldn't figure out how the things we did could possibly be the right thing to do!" Toward the end, Mayuri was speaking so quickly that Izora could hardly understand.

She was forced to take a deep breath before continuing. "After that day, though! I realized the _truth_  of it all: Marines don't exist to protect people, and they don't exist for justice! We were nothing but tools and playthings for the Government.

"I was too much of a coward to run away that day, so I waited, put in the proper paperwork, got a proper retirement - but I would bite my own tongue off before I ever worked for them again. And if you say that you'll become one - _I'll kill you too_. Even becoming a pirate would be better - at least you could choose to be merciful."

It was clear to Izora that Mayuri had been bottling her feelings about this up for much, much too long. Finally speaking honestly took such a toll out of her that Mayuri collapsed and didn't speak again, and Izora was left to think about what could have traumatized her aunt to this degree.

They fell asleep like that, too much unresolved but with both too mentally exhausted to stay awake. And in the morning, Mayuri had regained enough composure that Izora knew she meant her words.

"You're leaving today," she said. "I can't take care of you any more. It's your own fault you ate that, and I won't be punished alongside you. I'll give you enough food to get on for a month, and the supply ship, but that's the last time. Don't ever mention my name again. And... don't forget that you can't swim any more."

Izora didn't argue, for once, or ask anything. She packed up her clothing into crates, and threw away most everything else. Despite the harsh words, her aunt also gave her a page detailing what she knew of the Sharp- Sharp Fruit's powers, a training scroll, and a book of East Blue maps.

They didn't quite say goodbye, and Izora knew even as she set sail that she would regret that.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I've broken the first rule of the One Piece anime: 'give us a reason to care about the character before you reveal their backstory!' Maybe I'll shuffle the chapters around after I've written a bit more so you can see how Izora is with the crew before hearing about how she got her fruit.
> 
> Thank you for reading, and please leave a comment!


	2. Enter: Pirate Luffy and Would-Be Marine, Coby!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izora first meets Luffy and Coby at the docks: she's turning in a bounty, and they're looking for Zoro. She meets them again in a restaurant and tries to talk Coby out of his goal. Instead, he becomes more resolved.

For twelve-year old bounty hunter Izora, today was certainly going great. She had captured two idiot pirates with a combined B1,200,000 bounty in the early morning, which would be plenty enough for supplies and repairs. Her one-room Bonbayaji-go had been with her for a year and a half already, but lately her lifestyle had been taking a toll on it; it was in need of proper loving care.

Not only did she have money coming in, but a lead as well. The Marine base she was sailing towards had an infamous commanding officer named Captain Morgan who sounded like exactly the type of man she was looking for. Izora checked her prisoners once more as the great towers came into sight, the Marine's symbol clearly displayed on its side.

Another little sailboat, somehow smaller than her own, came into port and docked alongside her. There were two people on it - a goofy-looking guy with a strawhat, and a dorky looking kid with pink hair. She wouldn't have paid much attention to them, except - "... just floating around, you'll never become a pirate. You should recruit a navigator."

"Yeah, I'll do that! But for now, let's eat!"

The strawhat kid kind of looked like an idiot with sandals, shorts and a vest. Everything about him seemed kind of impractical, and after a moment, Izora decided that she didn't care if he wanted to be a pirate or whatever. She would have ignored them from there, if the loud one hadn't looked towards her suddenly and shouted, "Oyy! Are you a girl?!"

"Wh- Luffy-san!" His friend called out, looking shocked. "Of course she's a girl!"

...Yeah, what kind of question even was that?!

"I've never seen a girl with a unibrow like that before!" 'Luffy' laughed.

Izora's very feminine unibrow twitched. "Do you wanna die?!" she snapped at him.

"Oho? You wanna fight?"

But, his pink-haired friend was quick to jump between them. "Luffy-san! You can't fight a little girl!"

"Excuse you? I might be a little girl, but I'm a talented bounty hunter and I could take him any day!" Izora bragged, unwilling to have her pride stamped on any further. First they mocked her eyebrow, and now her _age_!

"Hmm? Bounty hunter? Hey, are you Zoro?"

Both Izora and the pink one's jaws dropped to the floor. "How stupid are you?!?"

Just then, strawhat's stomach gurgled. "Ah, right. Food!" and with that, they left.

"You can't just say something like that and run away!" Izora shouted after them, exasperated. Then she started collecting herself, trying to keep in mind that today was a _good day, damn it_ , as she started looking for the town's bounty office. As always, it took some time and a lot of patience to convince the Marines that yes, she really was a bounty hunter, no, they couldn't talk with her parents, and yes, there really were pirates waiting to be picked up at the dock. She was pretty sure that the Marine that accompanied her back to her ship was just trying to humor her.

The joke was on him, of course. He'd even had the nerve to ask the pirates who really caught them, and Izora took great satisfaction in the way they'd cried out their answer, even begging the little girl not to hurt them any farther. The Marine was certainly more respectful on the way back, and she could feel her good mood returning.

With plenty of money in her pocket, Izora found herself a restaurant called Food Foo. It had been a couple of days since she'd had anything more than bread, so she ordered a bunch of things that sounded fun, feeling better and better about her day. That is, until Izora realized that she could see the kids from earlier sitting by the window.

The idiotic one's belly had grown out. A waitress took a stack of plates from their table, looking a little alarmed as she gave the strawhat yet more food. The pink-haired kid looked like he'd been done for a while, and for whatever reason - maybe because she couldn't stand actually having a good day - Izora switched over to their table.

"Oh! Unerbrowsh!"

"Hello," Izora said, forcing a smile. "I'm sorry I got angry earlier. I hope it's okay to ask, what are the two of you doing here? I overheard that you're pirates."

The pink one almost knocked over a cup while putting his hands up. "I'm no pirate!" he said, "that's just Luffy-san. We sailed here together so that... so that I could join the Marines here!"

"Why?" she asked without meaning to, out of surprise. "I mean, I'll get back to that in a minute. Why's he here then, if he's a pirate?" ' _Is this idiot a threat to this town?'_

"Lookin' for crew members!" Luffy answered for himself, after gulping down such a large bite of food that she wondered how his throat could fit it. "I hear there's this guy imprisoned here, Zoro -"

The town's people jumped up and flinched, one even flipping over a table.

"Maybe we shouldn't say his name here," the pink one hissed at him. Clearing his throat and changing the subject, he said, "Well, so... a poster said that the commanding officer here is Captain Morgan -"

Once again, every local in the restaurant freaked out. Izora found the response interesting - she'd come here because of the bad rumors about him, after all. This kind of felt like confirmation.

Luffy just found it funny.

"Are there any safe names..?" Coby mumbled.

"Anyway, let's just talk quieter... why do you want to join the Marines?" ' _and especially this branch?'_  she wondered. He seemed a little weak-willed, and if he recognized Captain Morgan's name then he must have heard _something_  about him.

"Well... it's always been my dream to become a Marine and fight bad guys!" he explained, looking a little embarrassed.

Izora frowned. "So become a bounty hunter, then."

"Eh? Well..."

It looked like he hadn't considered that before. Before she could press much more, though, Luffy interrupted. "Coby wants to be a Marine, so leave it at that."

Coby, as he was apparently named, nodded. His expression hardened into something like stubbornness. "Bounty hunters are important, but a lot of them are still bad people."

"And many Marines are, too. Haven't you heard anything about this base?" Izora asked, frustrated.

She couldn't manage to convince him, though. It was unfortunate for sure, since for once Izora had genuinely been trying to be helpful. The two left soon enough, leaving Izora to eat the meal that had finally found its way to her alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm using the manga for reference, so people who've only watched One Piece might get confused about the settings since there's some differences. Thank you for reading!


	3. The Cruel Captain Morgan and His Annoying Son

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izora begins her investigation into Captain Morgan, and summarily closes it.

"It's so nice to be full~!" the little girl hummed. Izora had gotten a chance to eat eggs and fish and some weird stuff on rice, and it eased some of the disappointment that came from failing to talk that Coby kid out of his dumb goal. Although he'd looked serious in the moment, overall he seemed like the same spineless kind of guy that made up the worst Marines.

It had been a couple years now since she had left her home on Santan Island, and Izora had since witnessed firsthand the hypocritical message Marines represented. She'd seen five or six bases already that belonged to greedy, powerhungry cowards that were only too happy to take advantage of the people under their care. As long as they didn't get too cocky, their superiors wouldn't interfere. Everything she'd heard about Captain Morgan lined up, and so Izora supposed she should stock up before she began investigating.

When she'd last killed a Marine captain two months ago, she hadn't had any time to buy anything and nearly starved afterward when a storm knocked her off course. So this time, she went into town and bought a couple months' worth of bread and jellies, and some plum vinegar too. It would probably pay to plan ahead a bit, after all. Truly, Izora was growing wise.

She also threw a little extra on an outfit, and was a little irked to find that there weren't any shipwrights around that didn't work for the Marine ships only. Instead, she had to buy some tar and planks so that she could keep on with emergency repair.

Izora ran into a bit of luck, though. Seeing a tiny girl piled with boxes, a nice couple offered help. This was an advantage to her youth that Izora was still on the fence about, honestly, but the conversation they had at the docks made it worth while.

"How long are you staying in town?" The man asked, eyebrows furrowed in concern.

"I'm not sure yet," Izora replied, initially wary that this might be another 'call-the-Marines-on-this-runaway-child' scenario.

"Well... Try not to stay too long," said the woman. In a whisper, she added, "The Marine in charge here... he'll even execute children if they say the wrong thing. His son, too - they demand respect and tributes and bowing in the streets..."

"How long's it been like this?" Izora asked, trying to look afraid instead of excited.

"Two years, now, but they've been even worse lately. It was announced five months ago that one of his superiors would come and investigate after a number of Marines here sent in reports, but it never happened."

The man glared at the ground. "My brother was one of those Marines. The captain didn't execute them, because the higher-ups were looking... but he sent them on a mission to capture Don Krieg, and they never returned."

 "Do most of the Marines here support him?" Izora asked. 

The woman shook her head fiercely. "They're just too afraid of him!"

That about fit with the usual pattern, but the main bad guy usually had a couple strong cronies too. Izora decided to take a risk. "But - would his next in command do the same bad stuff, if he died?"

Their eyes widened drastically, and the woman looked around furtively to see if anyone could have heard them. They stood out in the open now, on the docks, and nobody in sight was close enough.

"That's exactly the kind of thing you can't say here!"

Izora was quick to apologize; her risk taking hadn't panned out, and she knew that they would be warier of her questions. That's why she waited until they were done loading Bonbayaji-go to ask, "What was your brother's name?"

"Reece Turner," the man answered easily, still not recognizing her motive. Though she figured the name alone might be enough, Izora added, "What island did they send him to?"

"Why would you need to know that?" The woman finally asked. "Too much knowledge can be dangerous, you know."

"I'm just curious," she tried, but it was clear that they'd closed up again. "Thank you for the help, and for the warning."

The couple went their own way from the market, eyeing her a little uneasily. Izora figured she probably deserved that; in hindsight, she was as subtle as a brick.

With a sigh, Izora made her way towards the Marine's towers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Izora's goals feel a bit small and scattered at this point! But, they'll come together eventually as she learns even more. Thank you for reading!!


	4. Birth of a Legend? The Future Pirate King and World's Best Swordsman!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izora gets to the Marine base to find that something fascinating is already happening.

About twenty yards away from the wall, Izora realized she could hear screaming. Unsure whether this was a regular thing or not - all things considered - she only slightly picked up the pace. Deciding to follow the sound, Izora scaled a wall and looked down at an interesting scene. 

"CAPTAIN MORGAN HAS ORDERED YOUR IMMEDIATE EXECUTION!" One marine screamed. He was one among twenty or so that were bearing guns against two people - a man with a black hair covering and a haramaki, who was tied to a post; and pink-haired Coby, who was now bleeding.

"Surround the fortress! If that strawhat brat escapes, _you'll regret it!_ "

Izora focused in on this guy. He had a metal jaw reading 'mowë', and an  _axe_ where he should have a hand - and a handle poking through, barely covered in skin, way past his elbow. It was kind of gruesome to look at, but she knew that this must be "Axe-Hand" Morgan.

"You three aren't normal outlaws, huh. You're trying to overthrow me!" On the wall, Izora started. Three? But none of them were pointing weapons at her, so -?

"Take aim!" Captain Morgan ordered. A crash resounded as a window broke in the tower, and honestly, Izora wasn't sure what she was looking at. It got closer, closer-

"Fire!!!" The shout rang out just as the strawhat landed in front of Coby and the green haired guy. Izora flinched, her arm turning to steel, but it wasn't necessary for her to involve herself yet.

The bullets stretched Luff's body, and then launched back - the dumbstruck Marines dodged and danced around.

"Won't work!" He laughed.

"What are you?!"

"The man who's gonna be the Pirate King!" Luffy answered, with too much determination to be joking. 

Izora hardly had a minute to process that; she didn't exactly recognize his power, but - it was clear to her that he'd eaten a devil fruit, too.

As Luffy argued with Zoro, she heard her aunt's voice saying, "At least pirates can  _choose_ to be merciful."  Was he like her, a bit? He seemed a lot stupider, at least. Naming off such a lofty goal to strangers, as if he had already achieved it.

She tuned in to hear Luffy reminding the tied-up man that he would die if he didn't fight, but both of their faces were lit up in grins. 

"What is he?" The Marines finally began asking each other.

"He's not a normal human!!" Their leader pointed out the obvious. "He's eaten a devil fruit."

There were various responses to that, but Captain Morgan had them on track in a minute, sending his men to clash against them with swords.

Luffy barely managed to free his new crew mate, Zoro, in time for the guy to block each and every marine sword with his own... Three swords? Luffy had managed to find somebody as weird as himself. 

"I'm going to be the world's greatest swordsman!" The green-haired guy announced. "All I have left is that dream! My name might become infamous - but it's going to shake the world! I'm becoming a pirate because of you, but if I have to abandon my dream, _I'll make you kill yourself!_ "

"The world's greatest swordsman? That's great! The Pirate King's crew couldn't have anything less!"

All the while they talked, the haramaki guy kept a dozen Marines at bay with his swords and his scary aura. At the signal from Captain Morgan, though, they prepared to attack more seriously.

"Duck!" Luffy called out, his leg stretching around and sending the Marines flying.

"What the hell are you?" Zoro asked, again.

I'm a gomme man!" Luffy answered, more reasonably than before.

The soldiers, who had already been terrified to the point of near pantswetting, finally began to acknowledge that they didn't stand a chance. Izora had realized that when the bullets bounced back, of course.

It was about then that Luffy's eye caught hers. He looked kind of amused still, as he had this entire fight, but he'd turned his hat down a bit to hide it. What a dork, trying to look cool when he had such a weird fighting style.

"Listen!" Captain Morgan growled. "All of those cowards who just complained must shoot themselves! I won't tolerate defeatists in my outfit."

Izora lost her breath as the men actually began raising their guns to their heads, trembling. How could they be so afraid of this man?! But this was exactly the sort of position the Marines put people in every day. Thoughts of her one-eyed aunt shaking like any of them guided her legs before she quite knew what she was doing.

"On my order-"

"NO!" Izora screeched, strength flowing through her arms. Her feet hit dirt and kept running.

"What- another one?!" Captain Morgan yelled, looking vexed.

And to the left, someone said, "Oy, Mayu!* He's mine!" Luffy was running at him too, a bit faster than she could manage.

"I came here to kick his ass," she cried out. "I saw him first!"

Despite everything, Captain Morgan was too dense for fear. "As if I'd be beaten by a bunch of no-name brats! You idiots need to learn that the only important thing in the world is _status_!" He even ripped his coat from his shoulders, trying to look cool.

Captain Morgan was, in the end, a bit of an outlier to Izora's pattern. Although he had hid behind his men at times, that had been to torture them. The moron had genuinely thought himself great.

He was proven wrong when Izora kicked his ass and stabbed a bladed hand through his guts, of course. If he survived, he would probably never live down being beaten by a little girl.

A few things had happened out of the corner of her eye, like Marines getting knocked away, some onion-headed brat taking Coby hostage, but it worked out pretty well. Morgan had really ruled by fear, enough so that his people cheered when he fell and the lot of the 'heroes' were able to go their own ways. The other three headed off to some restaurant, and Luffy repeatedly asked her to eat with them, but Izora knew better than to overstay her welcome. She had stabbed a man, after all.

Besides that, she had somewhere to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * Mayu means eyebrow, so it's just a dimunitive of unibrow that sounds more like a name.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
